As you begin the school year, here are some ideas about the lay out in your rooms. Courtesy of Choice Literacy.

I would really rather feel bad in Maine than feel good
anywhere else.E.B. White

Last January I visited Keri
Archer's kindergarten classroom in the teeth of flu season. Almost half the
children were absent, and Keri and the weary remainder were all coughing and
sniffling. It was one of those days when as a class visitor I would casually
wander over to the sink and do a whole-body spritz with the hand sanitizer
every five minutes.

And yet, I looked around at
the bright hand-painted tables, the cozy pillows, the charmingly mismatched but
oh-so-carefully selected chairs that seemed to whisper "come and sit a spell."
I realized Keri had created one of those places where you'd rather be there
feeling a mite poorly than almost anywhere else feeling well. The classroom felt like home, no small feat
for any teacher trying to navigate draconian fire codes, lice-resistant seating,
and the requirements to post sterile standards prominently.What are you planning for
your classroom this fall to make it feel more like home for your students?
Favorite family photographs they bring in for you to frame and scatter among
the shelves? Self-portrait craft projects or sketches of favorite fiction
characters from years past? What will give a sense of welcome, warm as a
hearth, when children return to school?